


Parents Day

by Bandgeek18



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Bonding, Bullying, High School, Oliver is new at parenting, Pre-Season 1, Some angst, he's trying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-24
Updated: 2018-03-24
Packaged: 2019-04-07 13:13:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14081661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bandgeek18/pseuds/Bandgeek18
Summary: It's parents day at Roy's school, so Oliver decides to attend. He learns a lot about his ward...and being a parent.Mainly that neither are as simple as he thought.





	Parents Day

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know why, but I've been bombarded with a lot of ideas about Roy and Ollie lately, this is just one of them. Which means there will be more to come! Enjoy!

Roy barely looked up when Oliver came home from work. “Sup?” he asked, still looking over his history notes. 

“Different day, same bullshit,” Oliver muttered. He leaned on the table and stole a chip from the bowl next to Roy. “What’re you doing?”

“Homework.” He grabbed a few pieces of paper and held them out without looking up. “I was told to give these to you.” 

“None of these better be detention slips.” Roy shrugged. “I’ll look at them later.” 

Later turned into after their patrol that night. Oliver was grabbing a water from the fridge when he saw the papers. Normally he’d ignore Roy school papers since the teen put anything he needed to sign in his office, so he never missed anything important. Overcome with a sense of morbid curiosity, he rifled through them. The first was a flyer about community service opportunities. The next was a list of upcoming events. His eyes skimmed this, but it was mostly dances and sports games. The third flyer made him stop. His eyes hovered over the paper, slowly reading it. He frowned a little and went upstairs. “Hey Roy,” he said, leaning against the doorframe. 

“Yeah?” Roy poked his head out of his bathroom, toothbrush sticking out of his mouth. 

“What's this?”

“It’s a piece of paper.” Roy ducked back into the bathroom. “You write on it. Draw. It’s really versatile-“

“I meant what’s on it. Smart-ass.” 

“I don’t know, what does it say?”

“It says that tomorrow is Parent’s Day at your school.” 

“Yeah, I think my English teacher mentioned something about it.” He walked out and sat down on the bed. “I guess parents come and…shadow the students while they go to class.” 

“Ah.”

“Yeah.” 

Oliver walked into the room slowly. “So…is this a thing you want me to go to?”

“You want to come to my school? Why?”

“Why not?”

“You never take an interest in my school.”

“I do too.”

“Not beyond buying my uniforms and supplies, and usually remembering to send someone to pick me up.”

“Do you not want me to go?”

Roy shrugged. “I don’t really care.”

“Fine, then I’ll go.”

“Fine.” 

“Ok then.” Oliver stood there for a minute, before leaving. ‘If this is the way he talks to his teachers, then tomorrow should be an interesting day.’

— — 

When he came downstairs to eat breakfast, Roy gave Oliver a sideways glance. “So, you still coming?” he asked, grabbing an apple. 

“Yes. What’s the look for?”

“Nothing. I just…thought you’d have thought of an excuse for why you can’t come by now.”

“Very funny, wise guy.” Oliver took a sip of his coffee. “Do you not want me to go?”

“I told you, I don’t care, Ollie.” Roy shoved the apple in his mouth and started to tie his tie. He took it out and ate three successive bites in a row. “You sure your company can stand you not being there for one day?”

“It’s a big company. I’m sure they’ll manage.” 

“I’m sure.” Roy pulled his blazer on. “You just want to spend the day judging me and not doing any work.” 

“I’m not going to judge you.”

“Yes, you will. Or you want to.” 

Oliver finished his coffee. “We should get going.” 

“Let’s get it over with.” Roy slung his backpack on this back and followed Oliver to the garage. ‘Why does he want anyway?’ he wondered on the way to the school. ‘He’s never taken an interest before.’ At least maybe with all the parents around, the kids in his classes would be less likely to harass him. ‘Or harass me more because Oliver is here.’ It wasn’t as if his guardian had the greatest reputation around the city. Albeit, even if it had improved over the years after he’d come back from the island. Pulling up to the school gates though, Roy didn’t feel so confident. ‘Just play it cool,’ he told himself silently as he got out of the car. 

“So….where to?” Oliver asked as he followed the teen from the parking lot. 

“I usually hang out in the south stairwell until the first bell.” 

“The stairs? Why don’t you spend time in the courtyard?” 

Roy glanced around as they approached the passageway that connected the front courtyard to the central one in the middle of the campus. They emerged in the rectangular area between the buildings, covered in perfectly manicured, green grass and a few trees with old, thick trunks spread out. A stone pathway started at each cardinal point and met in the middle of the rectangle. “The Yard is….a tactical nightmare.”

“Tactical nightmare?”

“No cover.”

“From what? You’re at school!” 

Roy sighed, feeling people staring at him and Oliver as they walked past the fountain in the center of the yard. “No cover from this.” 

“Do people always stare at you like this?” Oliver was used to people staring, he’d done more than enough in his life to earn it, but it wasn’t just students, it was their parents too. Some even whispered as they passed. 

“Not since the end of September they haven’t.”

“I’m starting to see why you sit on the stairs. 

“My goal is to make it through high school completely invisible,” Roy explained as they entered the south building. Once they reached the back he sat down on the steps leading down to the doors. “We’ll sit here until the first bell rings.”

“Sounds like fun.” Oliver sat down next to him. “What do you usually do back here?”

“Read. Sometimes I go back over my Shakespeare.”

“You’re reading Shakespeare?”

“I’m taking a class on Shakespeare.”

“Why?”

“They make us.”

“…….They make you take a class on Shakespeare?!”

Roy shrugged. “You’re the one who picked this circus of a school. If you’d just let me go to North High School-“

“You’re not going to a public school, Roy. It’s not safe and it’s just….not done with the people I have to interact with.”

“I know, I remember. I was merely pointing out that in a public school, I wouldn’t be in a mandatory class reading Richard III.”

“No Macbeth?”

“We’re not doing tragedies until November.”

“Bummer. Those are the ones with the sword fights, right?”

"Don’t know, I haven’t read them yet. Did you read Macbeth in high school?”

“……I assume it was probably assigned at one point, but I have no memory of reading it.”

Roy snorted. “Figures.”

“Is this Shakespeare class the first one of the day?”

“Nope.” The bell rang and they stop up. “World History.”

“Ah.”

“Then Shakespeare, then Algebra.” 

“Sounds good.” Oliver followed Roy up the stairs of the south building and into a classroom. Roy took his seat near the middle and Oliver stood with the rest of the parents, crowded in the back of the room. A couple of people gave him raised eyebrows, but he ignored them. He frowned as he surveyed the room. ‘Where’s the-‘

“Good morning class,” said a middle-aged man, waltzing into the room and snapping the door shut behind him. “For all our guests, I am Mr. Nillson.” He took a stack of papers out of his bag and placed the stack on the first students’ desk. Without needing to be told, the students passed the papers out. By the time they finished they all had to stand to say the pledge of allegiance. The parents joined in and then the students all sat back down and started writing. Mr. Nillson looked back at the parents. “Every morning I start with a quiz on the subject.” 

‘Wonder how Roy is doing?’ Oliver wondered as he eyed his ward’s paper. There were no obvious signs of distress on the teen’s face, which could’ve been a good sign. 

No one moved when they were done, but merely sat at their desks until Mr. Nillson declared, “Time’s up.” Within a minute the pencils were down and quizzes passed forward. “Here are yesterday’s quizzes, please take your own.” 

‘Do we really have to listen to him talking too?’ Oliver shifted uncomfortably on his feet a bit. ‘I didn’t even like school when I could sit down.’ The class seemed to drag, and he mostly tuned the teacher out, taking a chance to glance at Roy every once in a while. The teen appeared to be taking notes, which Oliver supposed was good. ‘At least he’s trying.’

“Can anyone tell me which Greek philosopher taught Alexander the Great?” One hand went up. “Yes, Mr. Harper?”

‘Oh no…’ Oliver thought, prepared for the worst. 

“Aristotle,” Roy answered with ease. 

“Very good,” Mr. Nillson replied. “How old was Alexander the Great when he won his first battle.” Once again, only one hand went up. “Mr. Harper?” 

“18.”

“Right again. Now, Alexander the Great conquered a lot of places-“

‘Did he really know both those answers?’ Oliver wondered as the lecture continued. His surprised continued as Roy answered nearly every questions correctly, only missing a couple of dates and battles. 

“Who was Alexander the Great’s general at the time of his death?” Roy’s hand went up. “Anyone besides Mr. Harper?” No one sake up. “Mr. Harper?” 

“Antipater.”

“Correct again.” The bell rang, preventing him from continuing. “That’s all for today, we’ll pick this up tomorrow.” 

“Well that wasn’t so bad,” Oliver said to Roy as he gathered up his notebooks. Before he could open his mouth, Mr. Nillson gestured to them. 

“Mr. Harper?” he asked. 

‘What could he be in trouble for?! He answered every question correctly!’ 

“Yes, Mr. Nillson?” Roy asked. 

“I just wanted to thank you for your participation,” Mr. Nillson said. “As usual.”

“Of course.” 

“As usual I will exempt you from tomorrow’s quiz.”

“Thanks.” 

“This just be your guardian.” The teacher looked at Oliver. 

“Yeah.” 

“Nice to meet you, Oliver said, shaking the teacher’s hand. 

“You too, Mr. Queen. You must be very proud of Mr. Harper’s academic achievement.”

“….Yes.”

“Sorry, Mr. Nillison, but I have to get to my next class,” Roy said. 

“Of course,” Mr. Nillson nodded. "I wouldn’t want you to be late.”

"See you tomorrow.” 

“I shall be here.” 

“Ok,” Oliver said as they left the class and headed for the next. “What the hell was that?”

"What?” Roy asked with a frown. 

“He kept you after class….just to thank you?”

“Every day.”

“What does he mean he’s exempting you as usual? I saw you taking a quiz.”

"What you saw, was me writing down random facts as I remembered them.”

“……I’m so lost.”

Roy sighed and rolled his eyes. “Because I’m the only one who answers questions and they’re always correct, so he gives me 100’s in the grade book for the quizzes. But he doesn’t want it to look like I’m getting special treatment.” 

“I see. I had no idea you were such a history buff.” 

“You’d be surprised what you learn when you read a book.” Oliver rolled his eyes. They entered the next classroom and Roy took his seat in the row closest to the door, while Oliver took his place in the back of the room. This time at least, the teacher was already in the room. As soon as the bell rang he shut the door and faced the students. 

“Good morning,” he greeted. “For the parents, I’m Mr. Mineko.” He grabbed a stack of papers from his desk and started walking around, passing them out. “I’ve graded everyone’s essays. As usual, Mr. Harper was the only one who wrote a paper that deserved an A. Well done, Mr. Harper. I hope the rest of you will attempt to follow his example on the next one. Now, let’s turn our attention to Richard III.” 

‘Roy got an A?’ Oliver marveled, doing his best to drown out the students stumbling over history in iambic pentameter. ‘He actually got an A? And it’s….not the first time? Mr. Mineko said, “as usual”. He couldn’t say that unless Roy has gotten A’s on papers before.’ An ace in history and an A student in Shakespeare, of all subjects. ‘Who is this kid?’ This class seemed to pass a lot slower than the history class did, but he survived by the end of it. ‘At least he didn’t stutter and trip over his words when he was forced to read out loud.’ Oliver moved forward and peeked over Roy’s shoulder as he put his papers away. Sure enough, there was an A on the top of the paper in red ink. “So, is lunch next?”

“Close,” Roy smiled as they walked down the hall. “Algebra.”

“Math before food?” 

“I do it every day, Ollie. I think you’ll be fine.” 

“If you say so.” They walked into the classroom and split off. Oliver resisted the urge to sigh. One of his most hated school subjects. People kept glancing at him from the corners of their eyes. ‘Why do they keep looking at me like that?’ For once in his life, he was thankful for the math taking place in front of them. Once again, Roy was very engaged in the lesson, more so than Oliver expected him to be, answering questions correctly at least 95% of the time. About halfway through the class though, Oliver’s eyes caught a moment from the teen. Every few minutes he’d flinch forward. Oliver’s eye narrowed as they slowly searched the area near Roy. The kid sitting behind him kept moving his arm. Oliver shifted to the left a little bit and crossed his arms. Then he saw it. The kid sitting behind Roy took a pencil sharpened to a point from his backpack, then stabbed it into Roy’s back. ‘That little punk,’ he thought, eyes flicking to the teacher, who went right on talking about equations. ‘Does she really not see anything?! The kid’s practically jumping out of his seat!’ 

Not even 5 minutes later, he watched as the kid took out another pencil and stabbed Roy again. Oliver’s sharp gaze spent the rest of the class flickering between Roy jerking forward every few minutes and the teenage psychopath stabbing him in the back. Then he saw the two guys sitting in the next row who kept snickering at Roy when the teacher's back was turned. ‘Oh, so his pain is funny to them?!’ He might’ve only picked the school because it was where all his associates sent their kids, but he was pretty sure he didn’t remember anything about there being a pro-stabbing policy. When the class finally ended the three tormentors were the first out the door. One of them, The Stabber, knocked Roy’s book and papers to the ground as he left The other two kicked them as they walked past. 

“Later fuckboy,” one of them sneered as they left. Oliver made mental note of the adults who followed out after them. A couple he recognized since they worked at his company. 

‘Names, I want names,’ he fumed as he kneeled down to help Roy pick up his papers. ‘I can’t fire anyone without names.’ 

Roy didn’t say anything as he shoved his papers into his bag. “Don’t worry, lunch is next,” he assured Oliver. 

“Good to know.” He hovered awkwardly as he followed Roy to his locked so he could change out books and notebooks. “So, who were those guys?”

“Which guys?”

“Which guys? How about the ones who stabbed you and knocked all your stuff on the ground?”

“……They’re no one.” Roy slammed his locker shut and spun the lock to reset it. “Let’s go get food, I’m starving.” He started walking before Oliver could say anything, and he could only follow. They walked into the cafeteria and Roy made a beeline for an area with sandwiches. He grabbed two, two cartons of milk from a cooler, handed them to Oliver, and two small bags of chips. The teen moved with such efficiency, it made his guardian wonder what he could do to make him this efficient getting ready for school. Roy handed over his lunch money to the lunch lady and made an immediate route to the exit.

“We’re leaving?” Oliver asked, looking around. It was a nice room, with hardwood floors and wooden tables and chairs, instead of regal cafeteria tables. 

“Yup.”

“Why?” Before Roy could answer, a leg stuck out and tripped him. He stumbled, managing to catch himself before he fell on his face. The guys sitting at the table all laughed at him but Roy kept walking straight out of the room. 

“Watch your step, charity case!” one of the boys yelled as they left. 

Neither Roy or Oliver said anything. Roy led him to the library where they sat down at one of the tables. “You eat lunch in the library?”

“Better than eating in the cafeteria.”

“Yeah, that seemed like kind of a snake-pit back there.” Roy simply started unwrapping his tuna sandwich. “It’s just one table though-“

“That one table dumped my food on me every day I ate in there, the entire first week of school.” 

“……They dumped your food on you?”

“Yes.” He took a bite. 

“When was this?”

“The beginning of the school year.” 

Oliver looked away almost guiltily. ‘How did I not know this happened? Shouldn’t the school have….I don’t know….called me?’ Isn’t that what schools did when kids got picked on? The only reason his schools had ever called his uncle was when he was in trouble, which had been often, admittedly. “So you just sit here silently and eat?”

“No.” Roy started taking notes and books out of his bag. “I study and do homework.”

“Why?” 

Roy gestured to the empty room. “Do you see a lot of people to talk to?” 

Oliver looked around, then frowned when he spotted a girl sitting at a table in the corner. “There’s her.” 

“Huh? Oh, Cassidy. Yeah, she’s nice.”

“You know her?”

“We talk once in a while. Run notes past each other. Right before big tests, we study together.” 

“So she’s your regular lunch date?”

It's not a date.” 

“Sure.” Oliver was quiet after that, watching Roy eat and do his homework. Every so often he glanced around at the tall stacks of books around them. He might not have known a lot about this school before he enrolled Roy, or after for that matter, but it was a nice place. (As it should be considering the price of tuition.) Everything appeared to be some kind of dark wood. The bookshelves, the tables, the chairs. The floors were hardwood and even the staircases were mad elf wood, minus the ones on the outside which were stone. ‘Does he actually like it here?’ Oliver wondered as he ate his lunch. ‘I know he wanted to go to a…less expensive school, but maybe there’s a chance he was enjoying himself.' Lunch finished too quickly for Oliver’s liking, despite being 30 minutes, and they threw their trash away before heading for Roy’s locker again. “What’s the schedule this afternoon?”

“Spanish, biology, economics, and art.”

“You have to take art?”

“No Ollie, I just take it just for the hell of it.” 

Oliver rolled his eyes as the teen pulled his textbooks and notebooks out of his locker and put them in his backpack. “Are you any good at Spanish?”

“I’ve been able to pass so far. I can answer what my name is and what day if the week it is.” 

“Please, I can do that.”

“Sure.” 

Oliver could actually hear the teen rolling his eyes. “I do business with people all over the world. I’ve found it’s useful to be able to greet them and ask how they are in their native languages.” 

“….. Yeah that makes sense I guess.” Roy was strangely quiet after that as they entered the classroom and split up. The teen sat down at his desk and took out his notebook. He took a deep breath as his teacher walked in and tried to relax. If Oliver knew basic Spanish, he didn’t want to slip up. Unfortunately, his brain seemed to have decided it was still out to lunch. 

“Roy,” Señora Gomez said, drawing his attention out of his notebook. “Can you tell us the conjugations of the verb ir?”

“Si. Uh…..Voy, Vas….Vai…Vamos…..Van.”

“Almost. Only one wrong answer.” Someone else put her hand up. “Cassidy?”

“Va, not vai,” she answered.

“That’s correct.” Cassidy smiled at Roy, who felt his face getting warm. It wasn’t even a smug smile, it was a friendly one, almost amused. After what felt like the longest moment of Roy’s young life he looked away. For the rest of the class though, he kept stealing glances over at Cassidy. Her red hair kept falling and obscuring her face every time she wrote in her notebook; and a couple of times she even caught his gaze. When this happened Roy snatched his eyes back and tried to stay focused on learning the difference between you go and y’all go. Always the longest class of the day, the sound of the bell was sweet relief. As usual, Roy shoved his stuff back into his bag and practically bolted from his desk, nearly banging his legs off the desk attached to his chair as he did. 

“Nice going,” Oliver smiled when they met up. “Clearly hello and your name is all you know."

“Yeah. yeah, whatever,” Roy muttered. “Let’s go I have to-“ A slim hand on his arm made him freeze. He swallowed and slowly turned his head to look at the owner of the hand. 

“I’m impressed,” Cassidy said with a smile that made Roy’s stomach somersault. “I’ve never heard anyone answer a question in a Spanish class with Portuguese.”

“What?” 

“Vai? That’s Portuguese, not Spanish.” 

“Oh, yeah, right.”

“So you knew it was wrong?”

“I just knew it would impress you.” A voice in the back of his head started demanding to know why he’d said that, but then she laughed and it quickly shut up. Unfortunately, he couldn’t think of something to say after that, resulting in what felt like the longest silence in human history. Thankfully, surprisingly, he had Oliver. 

“Oliver Queen,” the man said, gently shaking Cassidy’s hand. 

“Oh, sorry,” she replied as she reciprocated. 

“It’s ok, I would’ve expected Roy to introduce me, Miss…”

“Daniels.” He let his hand drop. 

“Cassidy Daniels, it’s very nice to meet you.” 

“You too, Mr. Queen. I have to get going, Roy, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Yeah,” Roy agreed, glad to have something to say. “See you then.” Cassidy left the room and Roy waited a full 10 seconds before leaving himself. “Shut up.”

“I didn’t say anything,” Oliver replied innocently. 

“You want to, I can sense it.”

“You sense wrong. There was nothing wrong with you adorable displays of love-“ He laughed as Roy made a sharp turn down a flight of stairs, leaving his guardian to follow as he threaded his way through the crowd of teenagers. Oliver was still chuckling as he stood in the back of the biology classroom, arms crossed as he watched Roy sit at lab counter facing the board. ‘Oh god, I hope they’re not dissecting frogs. I was never a dissecting kid in school.’ A smile spread across his face as he remembered freeing the soon-to-be-dissected amphibians when he was a sophomore. In a teacher’s lounge no less. The resulting pandamoneium had been worth the three weeks of in-school suspension. Luckily there wasn’t a scalpel or frog in sight, but there were microscopes. The first half of the class was the teacher teaching about cells. Once again, Oliver found himself floored as Roy flawlessly named almost everything thing inside of it without hesitation. 

‘He must have good grades,’ Oliver thought as they were headed their assignments and they started gathering slides to look at. ‘I should check his grades, see how he’s doing.’ He frowned. ‘How do I do that?’ The rest of the class was boring as he watched Roy meticulously looking through a microscope, then drawing and labeling whatever it was he was looking at. When the bell rang, they left and Roy seemed to have gotten used to Oliver following him around. “Economics now, right?” Oliver asked as they climbed the stairs to the third floor. 

“Sadly, yes.”

“Why do you take economics?”

“Again, you chose the school, Ollie. You probably should’ve read about the course load, instead of closing your eyes and shooing an arrow at a list of the private schools in Star.”

“I didn’t close my eyes and shoot an arrow at a list. I took the first school my executives informed me they send their kids too.”

“That makes me feel so much better.” They walked into the classroom, the first class Oliver was actually interested in. Considering himself to be somewhat of an expert on the subject, he wanted to see what a freshman in high school would be learning. It ended up surprising him, considering the fact that the concepts they were learning he had learned in his Economics 110 in college. Despite it seeming a little advanced for 14 and 15 year olds, at least to him, Roy held his ground and seemed to be keeping up with the lesson. 

“This class is boring as hell,” Roy muttered under his breath as he met Oliver at the door after the bell. 

“No arguments here, although just be glad you don’t have to take 5 of them at the college level.”

Roy blanched. “That's hell.”

“Yeah. Anyways, where are we going now?”

“Art. We have to cut through the courtyard though.”

“Why?”

“It’s in the south wing, we’re in the north. The courtyard is the fastest way there.”

“Let’s get going then.” Walking through the courtyard, they passed people sitting on benches or the grass, reading or holdings hands, ect. A few people still stared at them as they passed, but Oliver found it was easier to ignore by now. That’s what 5 hours of non-stop staring would do to you. ‘I really hope they don’t stare at him like this all day.’ As soon as the thought crossed his mind he realized something. They weren’t staring at Roy, they were staring at him. His mind wandered back over the day as they walked towards the art classroom. ‘Now that I think about it….most of them have been staring at me. They’ve all been ignoring Roy.’ That didn’t make him feel any better. He knew what it was like to be ignored by your classmates, from the year he’d spent in a Spanish boarding school, and he didn’t want Roy to go through that kind of social isolation. ‘Does he even have any friends? I don’t remember any. Except for that Cassidy girl, he hasn’t talked to any of the kids in his classes and they haven’t talked to him. God damn, no one’s even said hi to him!’ These thoughts troubled Oliver was he followed Roy into the art classroom. 

There were easels set up in two rows facing each other and Roy dropped his bag by one of them without a second thought. He left Oliver briefly and then returned with a sheet of paper. He carefully pinned it to the easel, then left to get paints. Oliver looked over the painting. In the center, there was a dark red circle with what looked like small sakes coming out out of it all around, except at the diagonal points, where a set of two triangles reached out. The triangles had plants of some kind on them, which reminded Oliver of the cacti and dry grasses in the Arizona desert. Roy returned and sat down just as the teacher started talking. 

“Welcome parents,” she greeted warmly. “Today the students are finishing their paintings. They were asked to paint something that has significance to them. When everyone is finished, everyone will bring their painting to the front of the class and present it.”

“Why do they always make us present everything?” Roy muttered under this breath. Oliver chuckled a little bit as the teen started painting. Roy had a surprising amount of skill, but that was probably because everything seemed to have been sketched before hand. At the moment he was more or less filling in the lines. He painted blue and brown stripes that didn’t connect, but curved to give the impression of a circle around the outside. He filled in the snakes and painted two blue rectangles and a person inside the red circle. 

‘What is it?’ Oliver wondered. It was supposed to be significant to Roy, but he had no idea how. ‘Is it bad I don’t know? I mean….there’s apparently a lot of things I don’t know about him…’ 

“What do you think?” 

“Uh….it’s interesting.”

“Thanks. I was worried I wouldn’t remember all of it, but I think I got it pretty good.”

“Um…yeah. It looks great.” For a second Oliver was going to ask what exactly it was a painting of, but then he saw the look of pride on Roy’s face and decided not to. Thankfully most of the class seemed to be finished, so they moved on to the presentation part. They listened to several students talk about their paintings before it was Roy’s turn. Oliver gave him an encouraging smile before the teen shuffled his way to the front. He clipped his painting to the string hanging in the front of the room and seemed to take a deep breath. 

“My painting is a re-creation of a Diné- I-I mean Navajo sand painting.” He swallowed and glanced back at it. “Traditionally a sand painting is used to honor the gods, especially during healing. There’s a ceremony that usually lasts a few days and people will chant to get rid of…you know, evil spirits and stuff. Then the sand painting is drawn and the sick person would sit on it. Then the goodness of the gods would be transferred to the sick person through the painting to heal them. There are different ceremonies for the different illness like….Wind Way for the eyes and Mountain Way for the stomach. I-I painted it because I always really liked the sand paintings and my adopted dad on the reservation helped make them sometimes. So that-that’s why I made one.” There was some polite applause, more than polite from Oliver, and Roy went to put his painting on the drying rack before he returned to his seat. “I hate talking in front of the class.”

“Everyone does,” Oliver assured him. 

“Hmm.” Roy didn’t say anything else as the other students presented their paintings. Everyone just hung around after that. Once again, Oliver noticed that none of the other students made any moves to talk to Roy. It made him uneasy. 

“So, do you usually just sit here?”

“Yeah. The bell’s gonna ring in a few minutes though.” The bell rang. “Or not.”

“Good to know they can tell time at this school.” 

Roy shrugged. “Can you grab my painting for me?”

“Sure.” Oliver carefully made his way through the throng of parents and students leaving to reach the drying rack. As soon as he passed reached it though, his eyes narrowed. “What the hell are you doing?” Two boys were standing there, one of them holding Roy’s painting. He recognized them as the ones who’d knocked Roy’s stuff out of his hands in math. The friends of The Stabber. “Put it down, that’s not yours.”

“You mean this?” the teen holding the painting sneered before his hands moved and Roy’s painting tore down the middle. The two teens laughed as the the culprit let the pieces fall to the ground. They made sure to step on the them and jerk their feet to rip it more as they left. 

Oliver scowled after them. “Little jerks.” He looked down sadly at what had been Roy’s painting. With a sigh, he picked the pieces and returned to Roy. 

“Did you get-“ Roy froze when he saw his torn painting. “What the hell happened?!”

“Someone tore it… I tried to stop them.” Roy took the pieces from Oliver and held them for a moment before he scowled and crumpled them up. “Don’t do that! Maybe we can fix it-“

“Just forget it, Ollie.”

“Roy-“

“I said forget it.” Roy shoved the crumpled up ball into a trash bin by the door. “You coming or what?”

Oliver sighed “Right behind you.” Roy left and he followed, the teen not noticing that he’d briefly stopped the grab the crumpled papers from the trash. He slipped them into a couple of pockets in his suit jacket and caught up with Roy. “Who are they?”

“Who?”

“Who? The boys who pick on you in math and tore your painting!”

“They’re no one, Ollie.”

“No one- Roy one of them stabbed you! You should tell a teacher-“

“Why?! So I can be a snitch! That would make everything so much better, great advice.”

“Roy-“

“Oliver, let it go! You’ve never cared about what happens to me at school before, so why should you care now?!” That made Oliver stop dead in his tracks. “Look, why don’t I meet you in the courtyard?”

“Uh…..yeah. Yeah, fine.” Oliver watched Roy go for a moment before heading to the courtyard. There was a table set up by the entrance to the tunnel, so he walked over to it. 

“Name?” asked the woman sitting there. 

“Huh?” People just usually knew who he was. 

“Name? Of your student…”

“Oh! Uh….Harper. Roy Harper.” The woman looked through the box in front of her before pulling out a manila envelope and handing it to Oliver. “Thank you.” He was about to step away when he saw the three boys again, with their mothers, standing a few yards away. Despite not knowing the boys’ names, he did recognize their mothers. ‘I’ve met them before,’ he decided as he walked away. ‘Their fathers do work for me. In the legal division if I’m not mistaken.’ He leaned against a tree and opened the envelope, brain going through different scenarios on what he should do with them, ranging from making them work every weekend for the next 3 years, to cutting their salaries so they wouldn’t be able to send their hellions to the same school as Roy. The contents of the folder made him stop his schemes of revenge though. The first thing he pulled out was a school picture. Roy was smiling at the camera, looking happy and….maybe a little bit excited? “Must be the front the first day.” He moved on to the next thing, which was a progress report. He pulled it out and pride quickly welled in his chest. All A’s and only two B. ‘The kid’s a verified genius!’ 

“What’re you smiling about?” Roy asked. 

“Nothing,” Oliver replied smoothly, putting the paper back and closing the envelope. “Ready?”

“Yeah, let’s go home.” Oliver made sure to stand between Roy and his tormentors as they left. The three teens and their parents definitely noticed Oliver and Roy leaving, prompting Oliver to put his arm on Roy’s shoulder and lead Roy over to them.

“Ollie, what the f-“

“Hush. Afternoon, Villa isn’t it?” 

“Yes, Mr. Queen,” the first man said, standing strangely still. “Edward Villa.”

“That’s right. And Norton, correct?”

“Matthew Norton,” Mr. Norton replied, suddenly looking very nervous. 

“And….Garner?”

“Ted Garner,” Mr. Garner nodded. 

“That’s right. You all work in….legal, am I right?”

“Yes, sir.”

“I had no idea you sons went to Roy’s school.”

“Small world…” Mr. Villa laughed nervously.

“Very small. I sure hope the boys are getting along. I’d hate for Roy to feel harassed or hurt in any way. I mean, that would be a reflection on the men who raised them and we all know how I feel about employing bullies.”

“….Of course, Mr. Queen,” Norton agreed. “We’ll….make sure the boys all get along.”

“I’m sure you will. If you’ll excuse us, I’ll see at the office. Ladies.” Roy blinked in confusion as Oliver’s arm around his shoulder’s led him through the tunnel. 

“What was that?” he asked. Not that it wasn’t cool or anything, but he hadn’t expected his guardian to stand up for him like that. 

“What?”

Roy glanced at him almost suspiciously. “…..Never mind.” They reached the car and Roy barely waited for Oliver to unlock it before he threw his bag in. Before he could join it, however, he stopped. Oliver stopped as well and followed the teen’s gaze. There was a group of older boys walking back towards the Tunnel, all carrying matching gym bags with the school’s name and logo, and had lacrosse sticks slung over their shoulders with gear hanging off. Roy got in the car and was silent as they left. Oliver glanced at him as he turned toward the road, then made a decision and turned right. 

“Uh…Oliver?”

“Yeah?”

“Home is the other way.”

“I know.”

“So why are we going this way?”

“I want ice cream and because I’m an adult, they let me make decisions like that.”

“They?”

"Yeah….you know…” He gestured vaguely with his hand. “They. The powers that be. The government and Disney corporation.” Roy snorted. “Since you’re here I guess you can have some too.”

“Gee, thanks.” 

Oliver made sure to go to the best ice cream place in Star. After he’d ordered a banana split and Roy got a brownie sundae, the two of them sat down and ate in silence for a few minutes. Finally, Oliver cleared his throat a bit. “So….school….”

“What about it?”

“Your grades are good.”

“You saw my grades?”

“In my defense, they were kind of handed to me, but yes, I did. They’re really good, Roy. You’re doing a good job.”

“Thanks. Guess that’s a plus to having no friends.” 

Oliver stabbed one of his bananas. “You must have at least one friend-“

"Did you see any?”

’No, but I was hoping you were hiding them somewhere.’ He sighed a little. “Give it a little time, Roy. You’re still new-“

“We’ve been in school for a month and a half! Face it, none of those kids want to be my friend.”

“They could change their minds. It’s hard being the new kid-“

Roy snorted. “Yeah right. What would you know about it?”

“For your information, I attended 10 schools from fourth grade until twelfth.”

“…..Really?”

“Yes.”

“Oh.” Roy was quiet for a moment. “Do you really think they’ll warm up to me?”

“Absolutely. You’re a great kid. You’re smart, interesting…. You don’t smell.”

“Thanks.”

“You gotta understand Roy, those kids have probably been going to the same school since preschool. That’s the way it is at places like that. You’re…”

“An outsider? Believe me, I know. Most of those kids and your rich friends have made sure I know that. No matter how good I am at school, they’ll never change.”

“Please tell me that’s not why you’re working so hard in school.”

“It’s not the only reason I just…” Roy looked down at his snack. “I-I guess I thought that if I did well at school and people saw that then they’d stop…you know…saying all that shit about me being uncivilized and shit.”

Oliver sighed. “Roy-“

“And it would make you look good.”

“You shouldn’t worry about making me look good.”

“I just want everyone to stop looking at me the way they do. Like I’m….feral.” 

Oliver wished he knew what to say. He knew some people, his “rich friends” didn’t approve of Roy; or more accurately his upbringing. He’d seen the looks and heard the comments. Theories ranged from Roy not knowing how to even read to him planning on robbing Oliver and killing him in his sleep to Oliver doing…inappropriate things with him. Suffice to say, Oliver had pointedly ignored all of this. However, it had never occurred to him that Roy was hearing all of it as well. He might’ve been used to gossip and people assuming the worst abut you, but for Roy…. To a kid who had been 14 when he came to Star with nothing but a duffel bag and a bow, it must’ve been much more hurtful. “Just….hang in there kid. You’ll make friends and when people get to know you they’ll see how great you are.”

“Oh yeah, like who?”

“Hm….” He was tempted to say Cassidy, but clearly, Roy wanted to be more than friends with her, so that was a conversation for another day. “What about those guys you stared at as we left?”

“The lacrosse guys? Please, they’d laugh if I tried to talk to them.”

“I’m sure it wouldn’t be that bad.”

“They’re the coolest guys in school. None of them would look twice at me unless I was on the team.” There was an almost wistfulness in Roy’s voice that made Oliver stop.

“And do you want to be on the team?”

“….A little…”

“Seems like more than a little.”

“It’s just…. If I played a sport like that I’d fit in, you know? People would have to accept me then and maybe adults would stop acting like I’m going to bite them.”

“Seems like you really want to do it then.” Oliver frowned. “Why am i just now hearing about it then?”

“I didn’t think it mattered. It’s not like I can do it anyways. We’re already busy doing…the things.”

“True.” Roy looked down clearly disappointed after Oliver had confirmed his fears. “But, on the other hand, that stuff doesn’t start until late. Lacrosse is only what….two months?”

“Yeah…”

“I mean, it would only be two months in the spring and the only time it’d really interfere is if you’re away and I could manage on my own. As long as you keep your grades up I don’t see it being a problem.”

“What’re you saying?”

“I’m saying, that if you want to play lacrosse…we can find a way to make it work.” The smile on Roy’s face made Oliver’s chest lighten. 

“Really?”

“Yes, really.”

“That-that would be awesome, Ollie! Thank you!”

“I’ll get you some gear soon so you can start practicing.”

“Awesome!”

“You should’ve told me sooner this was something you wanted to do.”

“It’s not like you’re always asking me about what I want to do.” Roy muttered it so quietly, Oliver almost didn’t hear him. Almost. 

“What’re you talking about? I…” His defense died on his tongue as he realized he didn’t ask Roy what he wanted to do. After today, the fact that he knew nothing about what happened to the teen at school was painfully obvious. “I guess I don’t. I know it’s not…good, but I’m new at….this.” Kind of an understatement, since it had only been 4 months.

“This?”

“Yeah. This.”

Roy frowned and his eyebrows pulled together, not in irritation, but more in curiosity. “What exactly is this?” His heart started to pound a little bit as he waited for the answer. Part of him was afraid, terrified to ask Oliver what exactly their relationship was. When he’d left the Navajo reservation, he’d decided he never wanted another parent again; not after losing two. But the idea of Oliver not wanting to know about his day, not being proud of him, or not caring….it made him nausea to think about being so alone. ‘Why would Oliver want that? He’s the CEO of a big company and a vigilante. He has more important things to do than watch you play sports.’ The silence from Oliver wasn’t helping to calm his fears. 

Unknown to Roy, Oliver’s hesitation was due to his own, similar fears. The billionaire hesitated to tell Roy what he wanted to say, that he was proud of him. The teen was smart, a great archer, and all around just a great kid. Oliver was prepared to brag to everyone in his office how smart Roy was. He was even excited to watch him play sports, knowing deep in his gut Roy would be good at that too. ‘What makes you think he’d want a father like you?’ A traitorous voice in his head whispered. ‘You wouldn’t even be half as good with him as Raymond was. Or Roy Sr. You can barely take care of yourself and run the company. What makes you think you’d be any good at this?’ Oliver really didn’t have a defense against that. Just the fact that he was proud of Roy and he loved him. He wanted to see Roy succeed and be happy. He glanced across the table, but Roy didn’t look at him. “This…. This is something.”

“Something good?”

Oliver smiled as he scooped the cherry off his banana split with his spoon and dropped it onto Roy’s sundae. “Yeah, kid. It’s something good.”


End file.
